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HP Launches Live Improv Comedy Show on YouTube

HP is bringing a new kind of comedy show to YouTube. Actors from the Upright Citizens Bridgade Theater will take skit ideas from viewers and perform them live on Google's video-sharing site.

The two-hour show, dubbed HP ePrint Live, will be hosted by comedian Rob Riggle and simultaneously broadcast on the HP for Home Facebook Page. Viewers can send in ideas for skits by e-mailing their submission to one of HP's Internet-connected ePrint printers on the stage (yes, ladies and gentleman, this is branded entertainment). Ideas that are selected will be performed live.

HP will stage a YouTube home page "takeover" the day of the show's premiere on January 21. The live event will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET and will be followed by five days (January 22 through 26) of comedy shorts based on new ePrint submissions. Viewers are invited to submit their skit ideas in the form of photos, poems, single words and drawings to ideas@hpeprintlive.com throughout the week; if chosen, a link to a video of the participant's skit will be e-mailed to him or her.

Because the skits will be performed quickly and released as short videos later, viewers can easily tune in at any time and share clips of their favorite performances afterward.

It's a clever form of branded entertainment, but its success depends on the talent of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and whether the actors are able to draw attention to the printer without promoting it to the point of annoyance.

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